BedTea.in | Ravi Matah's Blog

India set themselves up for a series victory on Wednesday in the most brutal manner possible, with help from Sachin Tendulkar, who brought up one-day cricket’s first ever double-century. Master blaster Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar created history to became the first ever ODI batsman to make 200 runs in an innings. India made 401 for 3 in the allotted 50 overs and have set a 402-run target for South Africa at the Roop Singh Stadium at Gwalior in the 2nd ODI played between India and South Africa.

Sachin Tendulkar made 200* and rewrote history in Gwalior with 25 fours and 3 sixes. MS Dhoni (68*) also fired on all cylinders to propel India to 401/3. Earlier, India won the toss and elected to bat. Nobody has seen God, but the God of cricket was seen by everyone playing at the Capt. Roop Singh stadium at Gwalior, India, going past the 194 made by Zimbabwe’s Charles Coventry and Pakistan’s Saeed Anwar, and to say that historians of cricket will remain busy so long as Sachin keeps batting.  (more…)

Another ‘Uphaar’ type tragedy happened in Bangalore where ‘Carlton Towers’, a seven storey building caught fire at around 4-00 pm Tuesday. Nine people, including three women, died and 90 others were injured, 19 of them are reported to be serious, as on Wednesday morning, after the major fire spread to the third, fourth and fifth floors of the building. 

Three persons died due to suataining fatal injuries after jumping from the top floors of the building while six lost their lives due to severe burns and asphyxiation, sources at Manipal Hospital where they were rushed, said. 

Carlton Towers’ has offices of various business houses and has a total of seven floors.  (more…)

 Two sikh gentlemen named Jaspal Singh and Mahal Singh, were killed by the Taliban in Peshawar. Jaspal’s  cousin,  Arvinder Singh was  on a visit to India and is now on his way back to Pakistan, told media that the conditions in Pakistan were not conducive for Sikhs to live peacefully. “Sikhs are not treated well. Jaspal Singh, who was killed, is my cousin and now we want Indian citizenship,” he said. 

Special prayers were held  in Gurudwaras across Punjab on Monday morning and there was outrage at the abduction and brutal beheading of Sikh youths in Pakistan’s Peshawar by the Taliban. 

The Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandak Committee (SGPC) has appealed to the Government of India to take up the matter with Pakistan saying they will not tolerate any more incidents like this in future. The SGPC is trying to establish contact with Sikhs in Pakistan to find out more about their condition.  (more…)

India got the scare of their life but they survived the onslaught of the South African tail and beat them by 1 run on the last ball of the nail-biting 50 over match.  South Africa won the toss and elected to field at the Savai Man Singh Stadium at Jaipur in the First ODI played between them on Sunday. India’s gave a pathetic display of their batting and their top order collapsed due to a bit of hard-luck and lapse of concentration and they lost wickets at regular intervals. 

Suresh Raina was the only batsman who could post a half century for India. Sachin (4) and Sehwag (46) were very unfortunate to be run out. No batsman was able to post a good score and there were hardly any partnerships worth mentioning. (more…)

Four centuries in the first innings by Sehwag, Sachin, Luxman and Dhoni gave India  a formidable 347  run first innings lead over South Africa at the Eden Gardens, Kolkatta.. In the second innings for S.A., it was only Hashim Amla who played a defiant knock of 123 not out. But apart from his performance, none of the other batsmen were able to withstand the jugglery of the spinning duo Harbhajan(5 for 59) and Mishra(3 for 78).

India’s main strike bowler Zaheer Khan was resting with a knee injury sustained yesterday and India were down to three bowlers. They still managed to pull off a miraculous victory with less than two mandatory overs to spare. Harbhajan Singh,bowled exceptionally well and took five wickets in South Africa’s second innings. (more…)

The date for bilateral talks between the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan has been fixed on 25th Feb 2010. The likely venue is New Delhi and they will discuss the issues at hand regarding the infiltrators in the LOC as well as the terror front. But, no one is going to take the responsibility of the bloodshed that has occurred in Mumbai as well as Pune.

The blast in Pune was not unexpected, as this city had been mentioned in the speeches held in POK during the recent congregation of a number of terrorist outfits held there. (more…)

Earlier it was the Pakistani cricket players who were not bought by the team owners for the ensuing IPL-3 and created an international row on the issue. And now it is the Australian cricket players who despite having being bought by some of the team owners are under a shadow of doubt about their inclusion in the playing XI on the day of the matches.

Addressing his party  on Monday, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray said Australian players cannot play matches in Maharashtra. Thackeray had issued the same warning earlier as payback for the repeated attacks against Indians in Australia. (more…)

The Indian Premier League on Saturday decided to move all of Deccan Chargers’ home games from Hyderabad and Vizag, home ground of the Deccan Chargers, due to political unrest over the Telangana region to Mumbai because of security fears due to the  agitation.

Deccan Chargers, the defending champions of IPL 2 will not be playing on the home ground, which they are very keen to do. If they play on the home-turf, they will have the moral support of the crowd as well as it will be a crowd-puller and money-spinner for their State.

The Andhra Pradesh capital was to host five matches, excluding the tournament opener on March 12, but the organizers have decided to move out. (more…)

Despite various denials, Australia on Monday acknowledged that some of the recent violence against the Indian students there  had clearly been racially motivated and vowed to punish the guilty as stipulated in the provisions of law.

Stating that the attacks had considerably damaged the nation’s reputation, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told the Parliament that “if any of these attacks have been racist in nature – and it seems clear that some of them have – they will be punished with the full force of law”.

Smith said the attacks which have included robberies and beatings are “inexcusable” and were being taken very seriously by the government.

In a childish advice, the Victorian Police Simon Overland told International students  not to display their valuable watches, hide their ipods and not to display their valuable jewellery. The Indian government as well as the Indian public has critically reacted to this comical advice. Gautam Gupta, the spokesperson for the Federation of Indian students in Australia has ridiculed this advice and has stated that Indians don’t need to look poor for their own security. I wonder how would Overland like to dress himself if he visits India? (more…)